Historical Cusco #2 - The Birth of the Inca Empire

 

A statue of Pachacutec in Cusco

The Inca people created the largest Pre-Colombian empire ever seen on the American continent and under their stewardship oversaw the building of many fantastic monuments and a roadway that stretched over 100,000km. It's a common belief that the Incas did this over an extended period of time, that their empire endured and prospered for hundreds of years but this is a fallacy.

In reality the Inca empire as we know it (the great monuments and lands stretching from the north of the continent to the south) only existed for a short period of time (about 100 years) before the Spanish arrived and the empire collapsed. 

The beginnings of the Inca culture are lost in legend but we do know roughly when their culture began to expand. By the 15th century the Inca had managed to usurp the lands around Cusco and the Sacred Valley from their rivals the Chanca but in doing so they had made mortal enemies of them. 

The story goes that to prevent further Inca expansion, several tribes of the Chanca people banded together to make war on the Inca people. As they marched on Cusco the Inca emperor despaired; his enemies were too numerous and all hope of victory was lost. Fearing defeat the Inca emperor and his first born son abandoned Cusco and left it to its fate. Fate turned out to be not quite as he had predicted though. His youngest son Cusi Yupanqui remained in Cusco to man the defense and in an extraordinary turn of events he managed to utterly defeat the invading Chanca army. So great was feat that the people said that he had commanded the stones to rise up and fight on his side and from that day on he was known as Pachacuti, the earth shaker and was crowned as the Inca emperor.

The red shows the Inca empire. The first map is shortly after
Pachacuti took control and the second is shortly before his
death.

Inca Expansion

Following the defeat of the Chanca army Pachacuti began a rapid period of expansion of the Inca empire. Over the next 30 years he expanded his empire as far South as Lake Titicaca and up to the region of Ancash in Northern Peru.

After Pachacuti died in 1471 there were only 3 more Inca emperors before the empire was conquered by the Spanish. The following 2 Inca emperors expanded the empire even more than Pachacuti had but in hindsight it was too rapid and by the 3rd Inca emperor the empire had divided between north and south causing a civil war that the Spanish used to their advantage.

Inca Governance

Pachacuti was not only a great warrior but he was also a great organiser. Almost all that we think of as Inca was built during his reign including Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, Cusco's Temple of the Sun as well as the vast network of roads the Qhapaq N'an.

It is unclear whether the Incas had knowledge of their amazing construction techniques prior to Pachacuti or whether they obtained them during his reign, what is clear though is that he took it to a whole new level and the greatest works of the Incas were all begun by him.

Pachacuti also introduced the Inca system of government. The empire was divided in to four suyus (regions) that were governed by Cusco and the Inca emperor, each region had their own governor (apu) who was usually a loyal subject who came from that region, each region was then sub-divided in to wamani (provinces) with low level governors and then each village or town was subdivided in to ayllus (groups of families). In this manner a clear and definite hierarchy was established in which the empire could be governed.

To keep order two systems were instituted. Firstly a system of redistribution was installed whereby regions that overproduced would donate a portion of their crops to the empire which could then be transferred to poorer regions in need. This ensured the loyalty of regions as they new they would benefit from being in the empire. Sometimes following a conquest some tribes would remain rebellious. In this case they were displaced from their homelands and moved to areas which were loyal to the Inca making them easier to control. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced in this manner.

Technorati Tags: Inca, History, Cusco, Peru, Pachacuti

Salkantay Trek Trip Report

Me (left) with my fellow trekkers

The 4 Day Salkantay Trek

Last June I had the opportunity to finally do the Salkantay Trek. In all my 7 years living in Cusco I had never got round to it; I like to trek with other people (for safety but also for companionship) and none of my friends ever had time (they're all guides and it seems they never have time off and when they do they don't want to go trekking)

Finally a solution to my problem came along when my friend Raul (owner of Alpaca Expeditions) offered for me to join one of his groups - I don't normally do organised tours but finally I had the opportunity to do Salkantay with friends so I jumped at the chance. A couple of weeks later we'd set a date, I'd got my backpack packed and was ready to go!





Day One

Day one started full of anticipation. I'd gotten up ridiculously early to get myself ready and buzzing with caffeine I was awake every minute of the journey up to our trailhead at Soraypampa. It'd been months since I'd done a long trek and I was excited to finally be doing Salkantay as I'd heard such good reports about it. I certainly wasn't disappointed with day one although it was far easier than I'd been expecting considering everyone says it's the hardest stretch of the trail. Having said that it may have been the 8 months acclimatisation before the trek that made the difference as my fellow trekkers definitely didn't find it easy. 

Setting out we made our way up the valley towards Salkantay Pass with Raul pointing out a variety of plants and birds along the way and telling us about the mountains we were seeing. My guided stretch of the day didn't last long as I'd soon left the group behind with Raul making sure the stragglers didn't get left behind. The views up to the pass were spectacular, with Tucurhuay to our left and Salkantay up ahead we had beautiful scenery and amazing weather the whole morning. I was especially blessed in that we were the only group on the trek that day and I really got to enjoy the scenery without a single distraction.

The afternoon didn't have anywhere near as good views as the morning and to be honest I found it a real slog just to get to the campsite. All the way my knees were killing me and I kept slipping and sliding on loose rocks. When we eventually arrived to Huayracmachay I was happy to be greeted by the porters who'd set up the tents ready for us and already had a hot cup of mate de coca waiting.

The horsemen setting up	Tucurhuay Mountain	Salkantay Mountain
Lunch - Tarwi and Fish	Salkantay Pass	Me with one of the porters

Day 2

Day 2 was by far my favorite day of the trek. From Huayracmachay the scenery and climate completely changed; just 30 minutes walk from our campsite we were in a lush valley with hummingbirds flitting about and whole array of beautiful flowers including many varieties of orchids.Throughout the day we followed raging rivers, passed beautiful waterfalls, saw thermal springs bubbling up from the mountain and got to learn all about the many species of birds and plants that inhabited the area. The real highlight was a Toucan sat high up in a tree that thanks to Raul's binoculars we all got a good view of.

After the high altitude and chill air of Day 1, the lower climes and warm air were a real benefit and gave me a new lease of life. For most of the day we managed to all stick together which was much nicer than before as it meant trekking in company and this time I got the benefit of Raul's expert knowledge. The only downside of the day were the mosquitoes! Despite my best efforts of applying insect repellant and covering every opening I could they still managed to bite me ferociously - I think they just decided to bypass my clothing and bite me straight through it. By the end of the day I had bite marks all over my back and my ankles had swollen up to twice their normal size which made the following days trek very uncomfortable.

Day 3

The final day of our trek before Machu Picchu took us up to the only Inca site on the Salkantay Trail, Llactapata. We left early from our campsite and it was a good thing too as it meant we were well ahead of the other groups and got to have a good look around Llactapata before anyone else arrived. The views from Llactapata were spectacular - the weather was beautifully clear anin whatever direction you looked there was something to see. Straight ahead you could see the peaks of Huayna Picchu and Machu Picchu and all around were snowcapped peaks of the different mountain ranges in the region.

Llactapata itself was relatively small and unimpressive - a section of the site had been cleared but large areas were still overgrown so there wasn't much to see. Far more interesting for me were the jungle chickens I saw living in the area - they looked delicious and I wondered why the local people hadn't tried to domesticate them.

As on Day 1 when there had been a long climb, I managed to get to the top first and so had the site all to myself for a good 30 minutes. Once everyone else had arrived Raul gave us a tour of the site and taught us about the Incas in preparation for the next day. After that we headed back down the opposite side of the mountain and to our waiting train in the valley below.

On arrival to Aguas Calientes my trek ended, having been to Machu Picchu several times before I opted out of the visit and took the train home. Sods law dictated that my journey back would be hellish - exhausted and ready to collapse my train was delayed by 3 hours thanks to a teachers strike blocking the lines. I eventually made it back home by about 3am and slept until noon.

The views on the way up to Llactapata

The view to Machu Picchu

An artificial waterfall created by a Hydroelectric plant

Technorati Tags: Trekking, Salkantay Trek, Machu Picchu, Cusco, Peru

Festivals in May

Senor de Ccollyriti - Ocangate

Senor de Ccollyriti (The Lord of the Snows)

This is one of the biggest festivals on the Cusco calender and it attracts thousands of people from near and far. Falling at either the end of May or beginning of June around 10,000 devotees (along with a handful of tourists) attend the festival each year.

The story goes that in 1780 a young shepherd boy (Mariana Mayta), mistreated by his brother escaped up to the high mountain of Colquepunku. Hungry and alone he met another child on the mountain called Manuel who shared his food with him and they became friends. 

Eventually Mariano's father went looking for his son and when he found him he discovered that instead of suffering on the high mountain, his sheep had increased in number. As a reward he sent Mariano to Cusco to get new clothes and Mariano also asked to buy some for his friend Manuel who always wore the same outfit everyday. His father agreed and so Mariano asked Manuel asked for a sample of his clothes to buy the same kind of material.

When Mariano arrived to Cusco he was unable to find the cloth and was informed only the bishop wore it. When he inquired from the bishop where he bought it from the bishop became interested and asked why. Hearing the story he ordered an enquiry in to the matter and in 1783 a commission was sent to the mountain where they found Manuel dressed all in white and shining with a bright light. On touching Manuel the boy disappeared and in his place was a bush with the body of Christ hanging on it. In shock Mariano dropped dead and his body was buried under the rock where Manuel had last appeared.

Devotees collecting ice from the glacier

The bush was removed from the site and sent to Spain on the orders of the king but the rock where Mariano's body was buried remains and has had a church built on the spot and is the main focus of devotees.

In reality, it is likely that Mount Colquepunku was already a site of worship long before the Spanish arrived and the story and construction of a church was used to redirect the worship to a more acceptable fashion. There is no evidence showing that Colquepunku was a place of worship before Senor de Ccollyriti but some of the practices during the festival such as collecting ice from the glacier for ceremonies suggests of a non christian practice and the idolisation of the mountain instead of the church.

Technorati Tags: Festivals, Cusco, Peru

Alpaca Expeditions

We'd like to introduce Alpaca Expeditions as the latest agency to sign up to Incatrailz.com.

Alpaca Expeditions are one of the new kids on the block but they're already creating waves here in Cusco. Started in 2012 by Raul Ccolque the agency has grown quickly and they have already been approved by the National Institute of Culture as a registered Inca Trail operator. Raul Ccolque originally began his career as a porter on the Inca Trail and later qualified as a guide. Thanks to his beginnings, Raul has made it his priority that the Alpaca Expeditions porters are well-treated so that they one day can also realise their dreams.

Alpaca Expeditions offer a variety treks here in Cusco as well as tours of Peru. Catering to both small and large groups they offer a personalised experience for each and every one of their tourists; from booking just a few days of your tour through to full itineraries visiting every corner of Peru they are experts in their field and can meet all the needs for your trip of a lifetime and more.